Soul Fire (3 page)

I burst through the surface of the water, gasping. My
feet found the muddy river floor and sank into it, holding
me upright. I coughed and hacked, and then swept my
long brown hair out of my eyes.

“Welcome home,” my stalker told me, leaning on the
trunk of the tree I’d been holding.
I floundered around in the muddy water, which was no
longer shining and clear.
“Help me out,” I told him angrily. I wasn’t impressed
with his level of familiarity.
He held out a hand and I grabbed it, deliberately
getting river muck on his sleeve. Only after he hauled me
out of the water did I notice something.
“Hey, where’s my car?” I rounded on him, sloshing
water everywhere. “What did you do with it?”
He wiped his hand on his clothes, which I noticed for
the first time were not normal garb.
“Remember what I told you when I put the fire in your
kitchen out?”
I scowled at him, beginning to shiver in the mild valley
air.
“You told me to listen to my dreams,” I couldn’t help
rolling my eyes. “I’m sorry, but it sounds a little like what
a Care Bear would say.”
He studied me with a puzzled expression.
“What is a ‘Care Bear’?”
I raised my eyebrow at him.
“A Care Bear? You know soft, cuddly, gives advice?”
“I am not a Care Bear.”
“Stop avoiding the subject. Dude, where’s my car?”
“What else did I tell you in the dream?”
“You said the river was a portal, or something,” I
paused in the act of searching for any sign of my car.
“Wait... no.”
He nodded.
“When you fell into the river, you crossed through the
portal. You’re in an alternate reality now.”
I shivered violently, and not just because I was cold.
“Prove it,” I forced through my chattering teeth.
He reached towards me and I jumped back. He sighed,
exasperated.
“You need to trust me, Rose.”
“Excuse me? Why do I
need
to?” I hugged myself and
stamped my feet, trying to keep warm.
“Because I’m trying to help you, not harm you,” he
reached towards me, and I saw he was holding a little fire
in his hand.
“Um, what? What is that?” I asked, my eyes wide.
“It’s the fire from your kitchen. I thought it might come
in handy, so I kept it.”
I squeezed my eyes shut and pinched my arm, hard.
When I opened them, he was still standing in front of me
with the fire in his hand. He offered it to me.
“Ok,” I heard myself say, not sure what I was agreeing
to.
He stood in front of me and transferred the flames to
both hands, which he held over my shoulders. The fabric
of my hoodie immediately began to steam and dry. It was
the nicest feeling in the world.
I jumped back when he knelt down and reached for my
foot. Despite what he had said, I wasn’t ready to trust him
at all.
“Relax, I just thought you might like dry feet. I know
it’s annoying to have wet socks.”
I let him pick up my shoe, moving the little fire over
the surface. My shoes and socks dried, and I felt a lot more
comfortable.
Suddenly, a bell tolled off in the distance. I racked my
brains, trying to remember if any building in Ar Cena had
bells. The man drying my feet with fire looked up.
“Darn. We have to get moving.”
I wrenched my foot out of his grasp, almost falling in
the river again.
“Get moving where?”
“I’ll answer the questions later,” he stood up, dusting
his hands off. Sparks dropped to the ground and smoke
trailed from his fingers. “Right now we need to get you to
the castle.”
“There’s no castle in Ar Cena,” I told him.
He turned and smiled at me.
“No, there isn’t.”
He started walking towards where the bell had
sounded. I hesitated for a moment and then followed him.
There were no roads, no signs, no boardwalks or
anything I remembered from the river in Ar Cena, just
endless trees and shrubs. I was whipped in the face more
than once by a stray branch.
Just as I was about to turn around and try to make my
way back to the river, the forest opened up to a grassy
plain. It was completely deserted, except for the enormous
castle looming over it. Smoke billowed from hidden
chimneys, as horses grazed in the surrounding fields and
birds flitted about the stonework.
“This way.” My stalker said.
He led me onto a well trodden path and which lead to
the base of the castle and let me through a pair of vast oak
doors which had been open and waiting. We emerged into
a relatively small hall, with a staircase leading up into the
castle.
But the entrance hall wasn’t empty; far from it. A
crowd of about eighty teenagers were waiting patiently for
something, all muttering to each other. They were all
dressed in neat grey, long sleeved shirts, grey cotton pants
and knee high brown leather boots. It was all so uniform
and neat; I began to blush as everyone in the group turned
to stare at me, as I stood dripping onto the flagstones.
“You stay here.” My stalker told me, and turned to head
up the staircase.
“What?”
“Stay here.”
“No no no, you can’t just leave me!” I seized his elbow,
suddenly desperate for his company in this crowd of
strangers. “I have no idea what’s going on!”
“You will soon. Just stay here with the others. Don’t
wander, someone will come and talk to you. That goes for
all of you!” He called to the others. I watched him as he
strode up the staircase and out of sight.
It was only then that I realised that the others seemed
to be as clueless as I was. Apart from a select few teenagers
who were standing together, everyone else was looking
around, fascinated by their surroundings.
I noticed one boy standing on the fringes of the sizable
group, with dark hair, pale skin and a stance that told
everyone he was determined to be a loner. He looked over
at me, sensing my curious gaze. He looked me up and
down and then turned away. My cheeks began to burn as I
looked at the flagstones beneath my feet.
The sound of a door opening made me look up. A man
entered, dressed in white robes that contrasted his dark
skin.
“Welcome to all of our new students,” he said, his voice
deep and commanding. “I understand this may be
confusing for some of you,” at this, I saw a smirk grow on
all the faces of the group of teenagers standing together.
“Trust me when I say that in a day or two, all of this will
be clear to you.”
A day or two was a long time to be completely out of
your depth.
A woman had appeared next to him, holding a scroll.
Without hesitating, she tapped a young man on the
shoulder and led him into a small room that I hadn’t
noticed. We all watched the door eagerly, desperate for
information. The first man to speak to us watched us with
dark eyes, as though he was counting. I clenched my teeth
as he examined me, as though accusing me of getting
water and muck on the floor.
Before I could ask if there was someplace I could clean
up, the door to the chamber opened, and the young man
came back out. He made his way straight to me, tapping
me on the shoulder and then merging with the rest of the
students.
I hesitantly took a step in the direction of the door.
When no one stopped me, I strode quickly to the room,
pulling the door closed. I turned around, my back against
the door. The room was smaller than I’d thought,
furnished only with a desk and torches on the wall.
“Rose Evermore?” The old woman asked from behind
the desk.
“Yes?”
“My name is Netalia. I am the second Master of this
school. You have already met Iain; he is the first Master.
Now,” she flicked through the scrolls on the desk until she
got to one that was clearly marked with my name. “You
will never be known by Rose Evermore again. Your name
is now Sky.”
“Um, no,” I stuck my thumbs through the belt loops of
my jeans. “My name is Rose. My Mum named me for the
chick on the Titanic.” A movie which had scarred me for
life after watching it at the impressionable age of four.
“Here you will be known as Sky, nothing else. That is
the way of the Academy.” Her pale blue eyes washed over
me, and I wondered if she was this cold to everyone.
“The way of the Academy is it?” I asked, starting to get
angry. “Well, your Academy has sent a strange man to my
home town to follow me, and then ripped me from my
everyday life, brought me here, and now you’re changing
my name?”
She stood up from behind her desk, some of her white
hair falling from its bun on top of her head.
“I’m going to have to ask you to calm down, Sky.”
“Don’t call me that!” I snapped, holding my hands out
to keep her away from me.
We both stared as emerald fire gleamed around my
finger tips. Before either of us could move, flames erupted
on my palms, racing down my fingers. I held my hands up
to my eyes, watching the flames flicker and dance. It was
as though I’d doused my hands in petrol and then set them
alight, but for the fact it was green fire.
“We don’t normally allow magic before classes begin,”
the old woman said, disgruntled.
I gaped as the fire merely tickled my palms.
“I don’t... I mean... How?”
“You’re a mage,” she informed me heavily, her eyes
giving away nothing. “That’s why we sent Jett to Ar Cena.
You needed to be brought here to learn to control the
power you were born with.” She sat back down,
completely unperturbed about the fire in my hands.
“But... I’ve never... seen anything like this before.” I
whispered. “How is this possible?”
She raised an eyebrow.
“You’ve never seen anything like this before? Not even
when you were angry?”
“Never,” I said, still watching the fire.
She sniffed as though displeased.
“You’ll be given more information tomorrow. Now, put
that out and head to your room. Dinner will be sent up
tonight and classes start tomorrow. There’s a girl out there
with long red hair; send her in, will you?” She
straightened papers on her desk and I got the feeling I was
being dismissed.
Copying what my stalker - Jett - had done down by the
river, I rubbed my hands together and the flames went
out, leaving my hands completely unblemished.
I opened the door and headed back into the hall, not
meeting the curious glances of my classmates. I shoved my
hands into my pockets, lest they burst into flame again. I
found the red headed girl and tapped her on the shoulder.
She gave me a curious look before heading for the small
room again.
I watched her go, and then took to watching the other
students disappear into the room and come out again with
the same expression etched upon their face as the last
person; disbelief.
All except for the group of teenagers that I’d first
noticed; they’d taken to giggling or smirking as each
student reappeared. I narrowed my eyes at them - I knew
exactly what type of person they all were. Seems as
though every realm has a group of jerks out to ruin life for
everybody else.
Once we’d all been renamed, we were led up the stairs
by Jett. We got to the point where the stairs branched,
stretching in opposite directions.
“Boys that way,” he said, pointing to the left. “And girls
to the right.”
I followed the rest of the girls up the stairs, which led
to a hallway lined with doors, just like the dorm rooms at
camp, back at home.
I wandered the line of doors until I found one with
‘Sky’ written next to it. Pushing the door open, I stepped
into what would be my dorm. It had a small double bed
pushed next to the window, a fireplace that had been
cleaned and set, and a table with two chairs. Next to the
fireplace was a dresser and an empty bookcase.
I shut the door behind me, walked over to the bed, and
collapsed onto it. I kicked off my shoes and crawled up to
the pillows. I just wanted to sink into the blankets and
quilts, never to surface again. It was all so strange and it
had happened so quickly that I hadn’t had time to adjust.
I began to shake violently. I quickly sat up and pushed
the window open as far as it would go. As the air began to
filter into the room, I breathed it in, trying to calm myself.
If I wasn’t careful, I was going to work myself into a state
of absolute panic.
I wondered what my mother was doing right now.
How long had it been since I’d fallen into the river? I
winced as I remembered that I hadn’t even seen her
before going to school that morning – she’d already been
at work. I hugged my knees to my chest as my eyes began
to sting with tears; I knew I was on the verge of breaking
down completely.
To distract myself, I tried to recreate the flames that
had ignited in my fingers. I clicked my fingers, clapped my
hands together, flicked my fingernails together, even eyed
off the unlit fire place apprehensively. Try as I might, I
could only manage one small spark, which I promptly
dropped in surprise.
When it started to grow dark, my efforts were
interrupted by a small knock on the door. I pulled it open
warily.
“Evening, miss,” a young woman pushed her way past
me and into my room, setting a silver tray down on my
table. “You’ll be dining in your room tonight, but this isn’t
the norm for the Academy,” she dusted her hands on her
apron and reached into her pocket, pulling out a flint. “My
name is Larni. I’ll be waiting on you whilst you complete
your studies.”
She lit the fire and stood up to face me, straightening
the linen cap on her head.
“I’m... Sky,” I replied, the unfamiliar name feeling rusty
on my lips. “I’m a mage... I think.”
“Of course you’re a mage,” Larni replied, now
straightening out the bed covers that I’d crumpled. “Why
else would you be here?”
“I don’t know, I suppose,” I watched her bustle around
my room, sweeping dust from the corners. I stopped her
when she tried to close the window. “Please don’t. I need
that open to sleep.”
She clambered down from my bed.
“As long as you’re here, feel free to ask me anything
about this world. I was born in the village,” she added.
“There’s a village?”
“Oh yes,” she nodded vigorously. “Students are allowed
to visit it every now and then, too.”
“Why aren’t you studying at the Academy?” I asked
her.
She looked at the floor, her little hands unconsciously
smoothing out non-existent wrinkles in her skirt.
“I am not of the magical blood, miss,” she murmured
quietly.
“So how come I am? I’m from another realm entirely.”
Larni merely shrugged.
“Some students aren’t from here. The ones that are
think they’re better than everyone else.” She covered her
mouth with her hands as though she’d said a bad word.
“Begging your pardon miss, I meant no disrespect-“